When you are carving, one of the most important things to feel is a positive cross-over. This ensures you have a strong edge hold and good grip at the start of the turn.

The cross-over is the part of the turn when your body needs to move across the skis in order to tilt the skis onto the new edge. It starts at the end of one turn and crosses over the skis until they are tilted onto the new edges at the start of the new turn.

This part of the turn is definitely the most intimidating no matter what level of skier you are. Some skiers lack confidence at this stage and some skiers lack skill. To make confident and skilful cross-overs we have to focus on a few areas of the body that are key in making the whole process work smoothly without any blocks.

Know Your Hips

Many skiers, even at advanced levels, make turns and cross-over their skis without getting full use from their hips or knowing when and where to move them. To help get your hips moving more effectively you can work on some 'Hands On' exercises to first get some awareness of what the hips are doing and then to encourage the hips to move in a positive way . Try breaking down the turns and use the exercise of 'hip encouragement' to start to get the hips to function more effectively when carving.

1/ Find yourself some shallow terrain and then when the slope is clear and you have enough space, start to traverse across the slope. As you are approaching the point at which you will be starting your turn, slowly put your hand on the side of your hip facing uphill and apply pressure against it. The direction of the pressure is effectively the same direction as you would want your hips to go in a normal turn - across the skis to help change onto the new edges for the new turn.

2/ Start with a very gentle turn shape almost in the fall-line on a flattish slope. Progressively begin the turn more and more across the fall-line. Eventually, with continual practice of the exercise you will get the idea and build up a good level of skill and understanding of when, where and how the hips should move across the skis to initiate a turn.